I really quite enjoyed it too, up to a particular point a ways into the game (rapidly respawning infected, which meant I couldn't play in my cautious style of slowly clearing out an area and fully exploring. I successfully managed a "run for the rooftops" to get to my destination, but I couldn't face the repeated journeys back through that area).

Penalty for dying - cash, I think as a percentage of what you're currently carrying.

Exploration - it's a fun island to explore with some fairly varied locales, but, at the same time, the various quests take you to most/all of the major sites. It's like the devs didn't want to risk creating content people might not see!

I picked up Riptipe (the sequel) as part of a Humble Bundle. If they fixed the broken respawning but left everything else the same, I'll be happy!

I tried to like Dead Island, but I ended up quitting after about 4-5 hours. It's a very repetitive game, and I hated how quickly enemies and items respawned. The crafting aspect was poorly implemented, and using cash to repair weapons is just silly.

It wasn't as good as I thought it would be, but it was sort of ok - and quite entertaining in multiplayer for a while. It had a nice atmosphere due to the contrast of a sunny beach environment full of death and decay.

Ultimately, however, I think they hyped it too much - and that infamous trailer obviously made people think it would be some kind of dramatic masterpiece.